Publisher pushes textbook ads

[Telly Savalas]

For the past several months, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., one of the country's largest publishers of university textbooks, has been quietly trying to coax companies into buying advertising space in their texts.

"Reach a hard to get target group where they spend all their parents' money," says a McGraw-Hill brochure touting its planned ads. "Do you really think 18-24 year olds see those on-campus magazine ads? Do you really think they could miss an ad that is placed in a very well-respected textbook?"

The Whitby-based publisher, which has made presentations about its prospective textbook ads to more than a dozen advertising agencies, says in its brochure that ads can be purchased nationally or regionally, and "can be so targeted, you can even buy a specific major.

"We've never offered this before and we'll only offer it to the right organizations," McGraw-Hill's brochure says. The company plans initially to charge as much as $1.40 per book, and the ads would be inserts, instead of being placed permanently alongside text.

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You know if they get this off the ground in Canada, that we'll be seeing this in the U.S. soon.

What's next? Corporate sponsorship of classes?

"Oh my gawd. I was like gonna take Intel Calc II, but since I'm already taking DuPont Intro to Chemistry and Bechtel Western Civ, I'm not sure if I can handle the workload."

[aden_nak]

1. "Chapter 6 has no relevant info, but TycoCorp says we must read it."